The fine folks at Google Maps have recently added a most expedient method of planning a bicycle route upon the Aetherwebs in some 150 cities, including Santa Rosa.
Note that dark green lines represent bike-only paths, pale green for marked bike lanes on roads, and dotted green lines show good biking alternatives.
ITEM! Not everyone is gleeful about the new service however. The New York Post wonders if there are bona fide “fatal flaws” in the suggested routes. Of course, there are two problems herein:
The world is full of “fatal flaws”. I remember when America wasn’t a regrettable bastion of hand-wringing safety-mongers bent on plaguing every corner with rubber-baby-buggy-bumbers!
This is New York we’re talking about. Objecting to danger in New Amsterdam is akin to wishing the pain of shattered teeth from steam dentistry!
We invite any intrepid biking adventurists to explore said Santa Rosa routes and report back. Best of luck!
Guest author: Joe Greenlee has worked in copywriting for various websites, and currently works for a local, independently owned video store here in Santa Rosa. He has a BA in English literature, and enjoys reading, bookbinding, running, politics and philosophy, and is currently working on his first novel. He hopes to one day own a real rocket pack.
As an avid bicyclist and someone who prides himself on getting around by bicycle quite a bit, it occurs to me that there are a number of tales regarding its beginnings that many are unaware of. When the U.S. first entered the manufacture and widespread use of bicycles in the 19th century, the Gilded Age was in high gear. That meant that although opportunities to advance ones position in life were available, the gap between rich and poor was fairly obvious. It also meant a lot of horse drawn carriages, ingrained racism, and a society hostile to blacks either making a name for themselves or advancing into white dominated fields. When the bicycle industry began, it was associated with white men with a passion for new technologies.
Enter Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor. Born the son of a black horse coachman for a white family, Marshall took his nickname from a military uniform he wore as a child, when he began his career. His beginnings came with a passion for public performance, doing stunts for crowds that gave him automatic (or rather gear-matic) attention for his acrobatic skill. And back then let’s just say bicycle safety was less of an issue for mainstream culture. Bicycles themselves were far less sturdy, often tall and awkwardly proportioned, and no one wore pads or helmets. From there Marshall worked his way into the world of cycling, but alas, he was always bound to a struggle uphill, and the easier downhill cruising was far and further between.
The Great West End and Railroad Square Handcar Regatta is proud to procure Free & Secure Bicycle Parking in the Chevy’s parking lot!
Do refrain from piloting your noisome motor carriage and indulging a head-ache amidst traffic and a limitless pursuit of parking space. Instead, dear reader and ambitious saver of precious resources, ride your “BIKE”!
We are providing a safe and secure setting for you to leave your bicycle or Pennyfarthing Hi-Wheeler at our grand event, free of charge!
The noble Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, whose lofty goal is to promote the bicycle as transportation and recreation, will be patiently hosting said bicycles and other pedal-powered contraptions of The People.
So, good citizens of Santa Rosa and surrounds: retreat from said motor carriages and debark out into the open air and relish this great event on two pedal-power wheels instead of four!
The steadfast showboatin’ hucksters of kinetic whimsy known as Krank-Boom-Clank took Northern California by storm this past weekend of the 16th-17th of May, 2009.
Wired reports that the venerable bicycle turns 90 years old today (in a somewhat loose definition). The Great Handcar Regatta owes much to the Draisine and the many steadfast inventors who built upon each other’s discoveries, leading to the “bikes” we know and love today!
Drais called his patented contraption the Laufmaschine or “running machine” as it had neither pedals nor brakes, forcing riders to use their feet for propulsion and stopping. Flimsy leather shoes of the day and virtually no smooth paved roads ruined any chance of the machine’s popular use.
However, aristocrats found the invention charming enough to buy and race with. Eventually the French, among others, adopted the steadily-improving bicycle, calling it the Draisine, a term that is still used today for human powered railcars.
For a quick tour of the bicycle’s humble beginnings, see the following slideshow from the Institute and Museum of the History of Science: Cycling Through Time
As witnessed at the recent Santa Rosa Bike Coalition’s July 4th Festival, The Great Handcar Regatta Tent of Curiosities and the Krank-Boom-Clank boys on their revisionist wheels of whimsey will be enlivening Heritage Days in sunny Santa Rosa this Saturday August 9th, 2008.
The event takes place in Railroad Square in the old downtown of Santa Rosa from 10am to 4pm. Visit our Directions page.
THIS JUST IN! The Krank-Boom-Clank bike mangling boys hit New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat on Sat., July 19th. Photos seen at Flickr.
Word has it that the festival was a rollicking good time, replete with a rowdy Chicago-based marching known as Mucca Pazza, the vivacious and verily pink Sprockettes, plus more bands, the helmeted madness of Cyclecide’s rodeo of truly bizarre wheels, and so much ambrosial beer (and yet more delights such as the New Orleans style marching wake for the dying love of cars via a child’s Cadillac Escalade carried upon shoulders on a litter and the scads of costumed bike fanatics in attendance too)!
For those who are lost, New Belgium’s Tour de Fat is a celebration of bicycling first and beer and entertainment second, including an early cross-city ride, a parade of outlandish pedaled contraptions and equally eccentric costumed riders, plus music and artistic performance, and more!
ITEM! Word has it that our own Krank-Boom-Clank crew will be attending with their perplexing pedal-powered conundrums!
Wander through these other stimulating and progressive projects by New Belgium Brewing and its partners in biking and sustainability:
Follow Your Folly Interesting and inspiring stories of extraordinary people and their passions
Innovate or Die Partner project to create a Machine Contest to stimulate human power transportation designs
Team Wonder Bike Providing biking inspiration to commuters everywhere
ITEM! The thoroughly irrepressible Krank-Boom-Clank will be causing a stir upon their manifold conveyances of pedaling whimsey for all to witness! Learn more about The Great Handcar Regatta too at our well appointed stripey tent of curious treasures and fiendish oddities!
The festival features
a bike decorating contest and parade for kids
a slow bike race
a flat tire changing contest
water balloon toss
a jump house
various art activities
drawings for prizes and more
SCBC will provide free valet bike parking
win a Cool Cruiser from the BikePeddler in the Bicycle Santa Rosa Bike Raffle!
Rideable Bicycle Replicas in Alameda, CA, have been putting “High Wheelers” into high gear since 1973.
In addition to antique replicas of “Hi-Wheelers”, or “Penny Farthing” and “Bone Shaker” bikes as they have been called, Rideable Bicycle Replicas builds Pedicabs, both foot and hand-powered recumbents, tricycles, multi-rider surreys, and tandems.
As their Aetherweb site claims, “The bikes are very popular at festivals, parades, and shows. If you see high wheelers on TV or in films, they are more than likely manufactured by us here at Rideable Bicycle Replicas.”
We wish Rideable Bicycle Replicas many more happy years of high wheeling fun indeed! Ohmy!
Wired reports
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